Moon Zoo

Moon Zoo invites you to help astronomers count and analyze craters and boulders on the surface of the moon. You will examine images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which show the lunar surface in remarkable detail, including features as small as about one and a half feet across.

One aim of Moon Zoo is to provide detailed crater counts for as much as the Moon's surface as possible. The number of craters on a particular piece of the surface tells us how old it is.

Craters can tell us more than just the history of the lunar surface, though. In particular, you're asked to look for craters with boulders around the rim. Boulders are a sign that the impact was powerful enough that it excavated rock from beneath the regolith (the lunar 'soil') and so by keeping an eye out for these we can begin to map the depth of the regolith across the surface of the Moon.

Of course, in exploring the lunar surface who knows what else you might find. We very much hope that Moon Zoo will lead to the discovery of many unusual features.